Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Communities of Practice: Participation Support Structures for Newcomers in Faculty Student Councils

Participating in communities of practice (CoPs) is an important way of learning. For newcomers in such communities, the learning process can be described as legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). Although a body of knowledge on LPP has been accumulated from qualitative case studies, mostly focusing on the use of practices, the concrete mechanisms that shape the LPP process have not yet been systematically analyzed. In this study, we examined participation support structures with a focus on activities that senior CoP members demonstrate to foster newcomers’ participation. The use of 8 distinct participation support structures was identified in interviews with experienced members of faculty student councils. A hierarchical linear model based on data from 68 newcomers in 14 faculty student councils was computed. The model showed that in addition to exposure time and CoP size, 2 participation support structures (recruitment strategies and accessibility of community knowledge) were predictive of the newcomers’ level of participation. We conclude that senior members’ specific participation support structures can facilitate or hinder newcomers’ participation in CoPs and that the original LPP approach needs to be enhanced by taking participation support structures into account.     

Getting Ready for School: Piloting Universal Prekindergarten in an Urban County

Investments in high-quality early care and education have been shown to reap societal benefits across the lives of the children served. A key intervention point is in the lives of 3- to 5-year olds during the period prior to entering kindergarten. Many jurisdictions have developed broad-based prekindergarten initiatives. This study reports on a pilot universal prekindergarten program in 24 sites in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Child assessment data were collected on 204 children from early care classrooms for 3- to 5-year olds across 3 time points by trained observers using 2 standardized instruments. Changes in achievement scores were shown to be significantly predicted by race, parental education level, and whether the family spoke English as a second language, with largest gains shown among children who were most behind at baseline. The findings serve to illuminate the developmental trajectory of children before kindergarten and how data can be used to inform practice and policy.     

Cross-cultural training effects on cultural essentialism beliefs and cultural intelligence

The study reports on the implementation of a brief intercultural training intervention as part of a university course. The intervention consisted of a series of six lectures, one simulation game and one behaviour modification session, administered over a period of four weeks. Measures of cultural essentialism and cultural intelligence (CQ) were obtained prior to the first lecture and one week after the completion of the last training session. A total of 107 students participated and pre-post test scores were matched for 49 participants. The findings show that cultural essentialism increased, but cognitive and meta-cognitive scores decreased following the intervention. Personality moderated the trainings’ effectiveness: more open-minded students at Time 1 were more likely to report increases in motivational CQ at Time 2. Challenging claims about negative effects of psychological essentialism, cultural essentialism beliefs were positively related to both open-mindedness and cognitive CQ over Time. Implications for brief intercultural training interventions are discussed.     

The impact of the atmospheric turbulence-development tendency on new particle formation: a common finding on three continents

A new mechanism of new particle formation (NPF) is investigated using comprehensive measurements of aerosol physicochemical quantities and meteorological variables made in three continents, including Beijing, China; the Southern Great Plains site in the USA; and SMEAR II Station in Hyytiälä, Finland. Despite the considerably different emissions of chemical species among the sites, a common relationship was found between the characteristics of NPF and the stability intensity. The stability parameter (ζ = Z/L, where Z is the height above ground and L is the Monin–Obukhov length) is found to play an important role; it drops significantly before NPF as the atmosphere becomes more unstable, which may serve as an indicator of nucleation bursts. As the atmosphere becomes unstable, the NPF duration is closely related to the tendency for turbulence development, which influences the evolution of the condensation sink. Presumably, the unstable atmosphere may dilute pre-existing particles, effectively reducing the condensation sink, especially at coarse mode to foster nucleation. This new mechanism is confirmed by model simulations using a molecular dynamic model that mimics the impact of turbulence development on nucleation by inducing and intensifying homogeneous nucleation events.     

How children revise their beliefs in light of reasons

We investigate how the ability to respond appropriately to reasons provided in discourse develops in young children. In Study 1 (N = 58, Germany, 26 girls), 4- and 5-, but not 3-year-old children, differentiated good from bad reasons. In Study 2 (N = 131, Germany, 64 girls), 4- and 5-year-old children considered both the strength of evidence for their initial belief and the quality of socially provided reasons for an alternative view when deciding whether to change their minds. Study 3 (N = 80, the United States, 42 girls, preregistered) shows that 4- and 5-year-old children also consider meta-reasons (reasons about reasons) in their belief revision. These results suggest that by age 4, children possess key critical thinking capacities for participating in public discourse.     

Assessment Measures: management's yardstick

Nonprofit organizations' constituents, trustees and donors find financial reports confusing and too detailed. Advocates of Service Efforts and Accomplishments and assessment measures suggest that disclosing both financial and nonfinancial indicators will make the reports more useful. With hundreds of possible measures, ratios and data available, the nonprofit manager must select measures that portray the institution's condition and performance. This article presents a process and rationale for determining the measures. Also presented is a set of measures developed from interviews with presidents and administrators which were selected by a quantitative process that models complex decisions. The information selected for display both describes and measures the organization's condition and performance.     

Some aerodynamic aspects of hang gliding

Many sporting activities reflect new technological developments, sometimes to the extent of creating new industries. Among the most striking is hang-gliding, now so popular that the production of the necessary equipment is the fastest growing branch of the aviation industry in the USA. The design of the ultra-light aircraft involves important aerodynamic principles and novel methods of construction. This article reviews the development of hang gliding and the type of equipment in current use.     

Flexible Autorisierung in Datenbank-basierten Web Service-F?derationen Unterstützung von stark und schwach gekoppelten Kollaborationsnetzwerken auf Web Service-Technologie

Die plattformunabh?ngige und organisationsübergreifende Web Services-Interoperabilit?t setzt ein leistungsf?higes und flexibles Autorisierungssystem voraus. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Zugriffskontrollsystem vorgestellt, welches sich durch das Zusammenspiel lokaler und verteilter Autorisierung auszeichnet. Im Zusammenhang mit lokaler Zugriffskontrolle, bei der Rechte innerhalb einer Organisation ausgewertet werden, stellt sich insbesondere die Herausforderung, Autorisierungsregeln zu konsolidieren: Da die Funktionalit?t von Web Services h?ufig auf weitere Anwendungen und Betriebsmittel wie Datenbanksystemen aufsetzt, ergeben sich Abh?ngigkeiten bezüglich der Autorisierung, die überprüft und eingehalten werden müssen. über eine verteilte Zugriffskontrolle wird der Aufbau von Kollaborationsnetzwerken erm?glicht. Der Augenmerk liegt im Folgenden auf schwach gekoppelten Zusammenschlüssen, die die Autonomie der beteiligten Organisationen beibeh?lt. Skalierbarkeit und Effizenz werden durch den Einsatz von rollenbasierter Zugriffskontrolle einerseits und dem Caching ?hnlicher, wiederkehrender Autorisierungen andererseits erreicht.